Convenience foods such as pizzas, donuts, and other bakery goods which are sold for carryout use are traditionally packaged in paperboard containers. However, in some instances, the packages have little or no integrity and will often fail or collapse during transportation, thus spilling or otherwise damaging the packaged food products. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,301,960 discloses a package for food stuffs, but does not include end panels to restrain the pizza from falling out when the trays are inclined during transportation or use.
As is well known, carryout foods are packaged in a variety of ways for transportation by the customer from the point of sale to the eating place. For items such as pizza, one of the many varieties of packaging is a flat cardboard box having a hinged top which is swung open before serving the pizza. Such boxes have the attribute of minimizing contact between the box and the pizza top, but incur the disadvantages of being relatively costly and are cumbersome in use while serving food. Other approaches to selling pizza involve a flat cardboard tray which is inserted into a bag to cover the pizza. While this type of packaging is more economical than its cardboard counterpart, the flat tray does not prevent contact between the bag and the top of the pizza. Also, the pizza is not prevented from slipping off the flat tray during transportation or when it is inclined. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,689 discloses a carryout food tray in which end panels have rounded outer edges that facilitate insertion of the tray into a bag. However, this approach does not readily permit the stacking of trays one on top of the other in a stable fashion, nor does it minimize the amount of wasted paperboard.